TONY BELLOW has heated things up between him and bitter rival Nathan Cleverly after assuring he'll give the man he labels a fraud 'a good hiding'.

Both the Liverpudlian and Welshman have ambitions of claiming world title glory at the higher weight and Bellew believes the two could meet in the ring very soon in a rematch of Cleverly's close majority decision victory back in 2011.

Planning his third attempt at world glory, Bellew said: "I know my promoter Eddie Hearn is keen on getting me in against this other clown [Cleverly] and wants to make it happen. I'll do it.

"He's the only person in boxing I truly despise. I don't like Adonis Stevenson as a person but he's a great fighter whereas I just despise the other fella on every level. I detest him. The way he looks at me, looking down his nose, thinking he's something he's not."

Bellew said of mathematics graduate Cleverly: "He's a fraud. He doesn't even want to be a boxer.

"If I have to go through him to get a world title fight then so be it. I'm happy to do it.

"I basically had to beg for the rematch after the first fight and was told 'no'. Everyone knows how much I wanted it - and how much he didn't want it.

Cleverly lands a blow on Bellew during The WBO Light-Heavyweight Championship of the World [GETTY]

With my attitude towards him, I'd love nothing more than to give him a good hiding

Tony Bellew

"Now he has nowhere to go. He sells about 10 tickets in his hometown while in Liverpool we can sell 10,000. I believe he needs me now and I don't need him. But with my attitude towards him, I'd love nothing more than to give him a good hiding."

The 31-year-old concedes the decision to move up to cruiserweight was overdue.

"If it's not broken then don't fix it and I was making the weight for years and while it was a struggle, it was working for me," he said. "It wasn't 'broken'. But Adonis Stevenson broke it. He shattered it.

"But it's up to me to fix it, it's a simple as that, and I'm going to do what I should have done maybe two or three years ago and do what I've got to do by moving up. I'm sure I'll get back to where I was a light-heavyweight at cruiserweight."